Fierce, Style Icon, Chic…And Other Fashion Words We’re Sick Of (Fashion Editors Weigh In)

Garance Doré took to her blog today to opine about the difficulties of writing about fashion: “You have no idea how hard it is to write about fashion! It’s hell! Not only are the terms just as seasonal as the clothes we don’t want anymore at the end of the summer, but new trends, materials, and cuts appear every three days and demand their rights: to be named! So you’d better not let an outdated word cross your lips, ok?”

To this end, she cites a list of banned fashion words from her friend’s fashion mag, Velour. The fashion no-no list includes: “trendy,” “fashionista,” “must have,” “vintage/retro,” “celeb,” and “style icon.”

We’ve heard that these banned lists exist in glossies stateside, too.

But we got to thinking about which fashion words we’d like shelve. (We’re cool with “fashionista” as long as it refers to us–winkface.)



And this is not to say that we are not guilty of over-using fashion clichés and buzz words left and right. In one post I wrote about Julie Haus’s resort collection I used the words “feminine,” “breezy,” “edge,” “attention to detail,” and “girlier frocks.” Cringey.

Lauren is almost moved to violence when she reads the word “edgy” (apparently “edge” didn’t get me in too much trouble). Cheryl hates it when people throw the word “couture” around inaccurately and can’t abide the “f” trio of “flirty,” “flouncy,” and “floaty.” I can’t stand “frock star” and “uber” anything.

Then we conducted a very quick and informal poll of fashion editors and stylists for the fashion words they’d most like to put on moratorium. Let’s just say everyone would like to see “fierce” die a swift death. (Tyra, Christian Siriano, we’re looking at you.)

Here’s the breakdown: